Cape Cod Beer spreads cheer

HYANNIS — Many will remember 2008 as a year of cutting back. For Cape Cod Beer, it's a year of expansion.

Comment

By RICH HOLMES

capecodtimes.com

By RICH HOLMES

Posted Apr. 13, 2008 at 2:00 AM

By RICH HOLMES
Posted Apr. 13, 2008 at 2:00 AM

Open house

When: Cape Cod Beer will be showing off its new equipment on Saturday, May 3, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours will be given on the hour.

Where: The brewery is located at 1336 Phinney's Lane...

» Read more

X

Open house

When: Cape Cod Beer will be showing off its new equipment on Saturday, May 3, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours will be given on the hour.

Where: The brewery is located at 1336 Phinney's Lane, just north of Attucks Lane, Hyannis.

On the Web:

www.capecodbeer.com

» Social News

HYANNIS — Many will remember 2008 as a year of cutting back. Cape Cod Beer president and brewmaster Todd Marcus will recall it as the year he more than doubled his company’s manufacturing capacity and expanded its distribution from Plymouth to Provincetown.

Cape Cod Beer sells half-barrel and sixth-barrel kegs to area restaurants and bars, and refillable half-gallon growlers to liquor stores and customers who drop by its Phinney’s Lane facility.

This week Marcus and his small crew oversaw the firing up of a 15-barrel brew house that replaced its original 7-barrel mash tun and kettle. Along with addition of larger, 30-barrel fermentation tanks and new bright tanks where beer ages and clarifies, Marcus has invested in a gas water heater; an automated, insulated keg cleaner; and an electric augur to move barley grist from a hopper into the top of the mash tun. The goal was to make the operation more efficient, both in terms of productivity and energy usage, and to keep up with growing demand.

“With the economy the way it is, hopefully people will continue to drink beer,” he said, standing amid the hoses and shiny metal tanks where he brews batches of beer.

Marcus and his wife, Beth, the company’s business manager, have gambled that their investment will pay for itself in time and permit the company to keep growing, during a time of rising energy and supply costs. Todd said he had considered adding a second shift of brewing instead of upgrading his equipment, but dropped that idea.

“Beth and I may be workaholics,” he said, but said he couldn’t ask his employees to spend all their waking hours at work.

“You don’t do this to get rich,” he said. People become brewers because they love craft beer, he said.

Last year Cape Cod Beer brewed up a fair amount of what they love: 2,000 barrels of ale, Marcus said. He estimated the new setup will allow production of up to 4,400 barrels a year; he expects to make about 3,000 this year. The new brew house is not only larger, but it can produce more extract — or wort — from the same amount of malted barley mash. And each of the larger fermentation tanks can accommodate two 15-barrel batches of beer.

A barrel is equivalent to about 31 gallons. There are 1,984 fluid ounces in a half-barrel, and that's a lot of glasses of beer.

It's quite a change from April 14, 2004, just four years ago, the date Todd and Beth Marcus consider the birth of Cape Cod Beer. Todd had been working as the brewmaster of the Hyport Brewing Co. in Hyannis, but on that day he expanded to selling beer beyond the brewpub.

"That's when we delivered our first keg to Kettle Ho (in Cotuit)," he said.

The Hyport closed in 2005, but Cape Cod Beer kept brewing at the same Main Street location until moving to Phinney's Lane in early 2006. It went from a 625-square-foot facility to a 3,000-square-foot one, and added larger fermentation tanks. But the improvements proved to be a temporary step to replacing the brew house.

More sales means more work, so in the past two years the Marcuses have hired some help: a brewer, Brian Flagg; a sales rep, Blake Decker; and an account distributor, Chris Meyer.

In its first year, Cape Cod Beer had about a dozen customers on and around Main Street in Hyannis. The company's plan has been "to grow concentrically," Todd said. The business has spread west into Wareham and Plymouth and will be in Provincetown and Truro this summer, making its products available in all 15 Cape towns.

The couple said that every time they add a restaurant or bar to their customer list, they also try to sign up a nearby liquor store, so people who taste their beer have a place to buy some for home consumption. A list of the company's commercial customers cites 84 liquor stores selling growlers, and 126 bars and restaurants with Cape Cod Beer on tap. Todd said his plan is to stay local. His wife agreed.

"We're in the business to make beer," Beth said, "to make good, local, quality products."

The couple credited a loyal core of year-round fans for their success, and noted that some of them "are still bringing in the same growler to be refilled for four years."

At its Hyannis plant, Cape Cod Beer sells growlers of its two mainstays for $10 plus $2 deposit. Refills cost $7. Seasonals go for a dollar more for both new bottles and refills.

Cape Cod Beer does not sell cases or six-packs, which Todd said would require a dry facility separate from the damp brewing area for storage of cardboard. The added expense of labelling and packaging cases of bottles would drive up production costs, Marcus said, and, therefore the prices he charges. Plus, he views bottling as environmentally unsound.

"I don't want to see all those bottles not being recycled," he said.

In addition to rising energy bills, the company has had to absorb huge jumps in the cost of raw materials — hops and barley — from which they brew their beer. While a worldwide hops shortage made the news recently, barley is also in short supply, and since brewers use it in much higher quantities than they do hops, the effect has been substantial.

"The exact amount of grain we used last year would cost us $30,000 more," Beth Marcus said. Todd Marcus said he was able to insulate himself from an immediate hit with hop prices because he had contracted with a supplier last year. However, the cost of hops and grain has forced him to raise his prices.

Another benefit of the expansion will be the ability to brew more varieties of beer in the off-season. Cape Cod Beer makes two beers year-round: its flagship Cape Cod Red, an amber ale, and an IPA. It produces a German-style wheat beer in the summer and a malty porter for the off-season. Also during the off-season, the company makes smaller batches of a strong ale, a dry Irish stout and a cranberry and spice version of its red ale.

"I'd like to start doing some lagers," Todd said, "everything we do now is an ale. I've got a nice recipe for a Czech pils."

Todd said that he has had the opportunity to cook up many kinds of beer when he worked for other brewers, and would like to give his brewer the chance to experiment.